How to Connect Your iPhone or iPad to Your TV

Sometimes your iPhone or iPad screen is just too small. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to connect your iOS device to any recent TV for a bigger-screen media experience. Here’s our guide, from the simplest to the most complex solutions.

Connect With a Cable

By far, the simplest way to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV is to use a cable like Apple’s Digital AV Adapter, which connects your Apple device to your TV’s HDMI port. You’ll also need a standard HDMI cable—any one will do, so just buy the least expensive one you can find.

There are two models of the Digital AV Adapter for iOS devices, so make sure you choose the right version. Both are $49, but serve very different purposes. The Lightning Digital AV Adapter (pictured) connects your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to an HDMI-equipped TV, display, or projector. The Lightning to VGA Adapter does the same, but it plugs into VGA-compatible peripherals instead.

Connect your iPhone or iPad and TV with the cable, and switch the TV’s input to the port with the cable. Also plug the USB end of your Lightning cable into the adapter and plug the other end into a power outlet—it needs juice to play. Your TV will become a duplicate of the connected device’s screen in 1080p HD. Now you can play your iTunes videos, Netflix movies, or whatever else you want on your TV

There are many third-party Lightning-to-HDMI cables on sale on Amazon for $15 to $25; search “lightning to HDMI” for a sampling. They come from companies you’ve never heard of with names like Mostop, Innens, Tessin, and RayCue, to name a few; this Lightning-to-HDMI cable is under $20.

One big caveat with those third-party cables, though: if you’re looking to watch video-streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, or on-demand video from providers like Comcast Xfinity and DirecTV, most of these cables won’t work. They lack High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which prevents pirates from capturing high-def digital content for their own use. HBO Now has a nice primer on how it supports HDCP.

Connect With Apple AirPlay

Maybe you don’t want a pesky wire between your iPhone and your TV. The easiest way to connect wirelessly is with Apple’s AirPlay feature, which allows you to mirror your iPhone or iPad via the Apple TV or TVs that support AirPlay 2.

If you have an Apple TV set up, make sure it’s connected to the same home Wi-Fi network as your iPhone or iPad. Swipe up from the bottom of your iPhone or iPad’s screen to launch Control Center, tap AirPlay Mirroring, then select your Apple TV. Your Apple TV will stream a mirror of whatever is on your device’s screen. (You can also just use AirPlay to stream media from the iPhone to the TV, such as music or videos you’ve purchased on iTunes.)

Last month, Apple finally opened up its streaming platform and announced thatsome smart TVs will support AirPlay 2 streaming. Among the vendors set to support it are LG (2019 models), Samsung (2018 and 2019 models), Sony (2019 models), and Vizio (2017, 2018, and 2019 models). While you’re not likely to run out and buy a new television just to cast a few YouTube videos, it is probably something to keep in mind when you’re shopping for your next big screen.

One warning regarding this method: In very crowded Wi-Fi environments, AirPlay video might break up or stutter. In that case, use a cable. But it should be fine for most homes.

Connect With an Android TV Stick or Chromecast

There are more arcane, hackerish ways to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV. For instance, you can get an Android-powered TV stick, plug it into the back of your TV, install the Kodi media server app (once known as XBMC), and the stick will be able to play unprotected music and video from the built-in apps on your device by using the AirPlay button. It won’t support screen mirroring or protected video streaming.

In my experience, though, this approach is typically a nightmare. The sticks are slow, buggy, and unreliable, and Kodi support tends to break. Here’s a hint about what a pain they are: one review includes the phrase, “Once we downloaded an updated version of the device’s official firmware from geekbuying.com and flashed the MK808B.”

While this is definitely a way to save money over an Apple TV (and the stick can run any Android app on your TV, which is cool), what’s your time worth? Probably more than the $50 difference.

A better bet is the Google Chromecast or Chromecast Ultra. Each is a simple, inexpensive dongle that easily plugs into a TV’s HDMI port—the Ultra supports 4K and Ethernet connections. Your iPhone screen can’t be mirrored on the TV screen over a Chromecast, but for video streaming, there is the option to use your iPhone to navigate the streaming media apps that Chromecast supports. Your iPhone becomes a remote control for Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and others (but not Apple, or Amazon—Chromecast doesn’t have them).

To be honest, you can do this within many apps on iPhone to almost any DLNA device that has the same apps installed—I do it with my Samsung SmartTV and Xbox One all the time. Just look for the Cast icon (above) in each app to get started.

Connect With a DLNA App

If you have an internet-enabled TV, it probably supports DLNA, a generic form of media streaming available on many different manufacturers’ products. With the right app, you can stream unprotected music and video file—in other words, files you have stored in iTunes and copied to your iPhone; it won’t work with music and videos purchased from the iTunes Store due to Digital Rights Management (DRM)limitations.

However, you’re not limited to streaming media only from the iPhone—the right app will look at media stored on other devices, like your PC, and act as a go-between to set up streaming from PC to TV, for example. Devices you can stream to include not only TVs but also game consoles and PCs. You don’t have to convert any videos or install special codecs to make it work.

MCPlayer HD from Arkuda Digital is available for $4.99; a free lite version limits you to playing five videos per folder.

If your TV doesn’t show up on the app, you may need to activate its DLNA function. Go to the TV’s internet connection menu and look for an option to stream from a PC or home server. That’s DLNA.

Sunshine is another option—install a version of the app on all devices so you can easily share non-DRM media between them; it will also help you cast media to the TV (but doesn’t do mirroring, so there is no watching streaming video apps.